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Thaddeus Duke · (03-13-2022)

Storage Warehouse || Queens – New York City || 11:18 AM

Standing here in the light drizzle outside of the warehouse, I’m not dressed like you might be used to seeing me. Most of the time I’m either dressed to the nines, or I’m just bumming around in a hoodie. Today, I’m in a pair of black jeans, a black long sleeve shirt and a black leather jacket.

Symbolism.

Today is an important day in the future of Thaddeus Duke. Not professionally, but personally. I stopped working in the New York underworld a year and a half ago and despite overtures by my grandfather and a number of broken promises from me to him, I’m looking to get back in. A lot of things are changing in my life. Some of them, I’m ready to tackle head on. Some of them, I’m ready to move on right now. Others… take preparation, and a lot of it.

Ever since Warfare in Paris, and the attack on Lauren, I’ve been acquiring information. In the New York underworld, ain’t none of it easy to acquire. In the meantime, in addition to all the other shit involved in my life, I’ve been storing equipment in this warehouse. Trucks, cars, humvees, troop transports… all in preparation for the bloody war to come. Not a war, in a traditional sense. Not a war, in which you are accustomed to seeing from me. Yet a war, nonetheless.

When I’m done, the back of organized crime will be broken. Hundreds, maybe thousands will die. The gutters of these five boroughs won’t have been this red since the 1930’s. The way I see it, the families have two options: kneel at my feet… or die in defeat. Don’t get me wrong, I have no illusions that this will be easy. It won’t be. It could very well be the hardest, most bloody war I’ve ever fought. But come after my wife… and I’ll fucking destroy you.

Hearing a splash in the distance behind me, I turn my head to see a long blacked out Cadillac slowly coming toward me. It slows to a stop beside me and a second or so later, the rear door opens up. Stepping out of it, loan shark extraordinaire, respected friend of the New York mafia, and not to mention maternal grandfather to yours truly, Alister Henry.

”Thaddeus,” he greets me in his usual stoic demeanor as he closes the car door behind him.

”Grandfather,” I greet him back. He stops in his tracks and looks at me for a long moment before fixing the collar on his jacket. I haven’t referred to him by what he is in a very long time. As much as I’m always seeking a connection to my mother, so is he. That’s the one thing he and I have in common.

Don’t misunderstand me, I have no love for him. If I could turn back time and do it over again? No, maybe I’d have never sought him out. Well… if I hadn’t, then I wouldn’t have met Elizabeth and I wouldn’t have a set of twins at home.

Okay, so I’d do it again.

Regardless, when you have something someone wants, in this case acknowledgment, then you hold all the cards. You hold all the power. Calling him by his familial title? Admittedly, a little emotional manipulation.

”You have my attention,” he says as we stand here in the rain.

”What do you see?” I ask of him, giving a nod toward the warehouse.

He looks at the building, then back at me, then to the building, and back to me again. ”Is this a trick question?” he inquires, giving me a puzzled expression on his face.

”No,” I answer him. ”Tell me what you see.”

”I see a warehouse Thaddeus,” he finally answers. ”Presumably vacant.”

”Walk with me,” I say to him, nudging my head toward the building. ”Does it stand out to you at all? Compared to any other building.”

”No,” he answers quickly. ”Should it?”

”I’m not trying to trick you granddad,” I say in an attempt to ease his minuscule but noticeable apprehension.

”It looks like any other warehouse in the city,” he finally relents as we approach the man door. He hesitates.

”Inside,” I tell him.

”In my business,” he begins, almost refusing to step inside. ”Sometimes when someone enters a nondescript warehouse such as this… they don’t come back out.”

”What’s the matter Alister?” I say as a slight grin starts to cross my face. ”You afraid of me?” In full disclosure, since I stole his wife, got her pregnant and left his employ, we’ve had a relationship that has been a bit contentious at its very best. On more than one occasion I have lashed out at him violently.

No… I’m not proud of that.

He sighs and fixes my jacket collar. ”Not even a little bit,” he answers with a light slap of my face before he steps inside.

Admittedly, it makes me laugh just a little bit as I step inside behind him. Inside is my fathers old ‘78 Chevy truck with work being done to it. His old ‘84 K5 Blazer, blacked out, reinforced. A new… to me at least… lifted ‘79 Ford truck. It too, blacked out. That one might be my favorite. Two decommissioned Humvees, two decommissioned troop transport trucks from my own military. All of them black as night. All of them reinforced and rebuilt with new stronger, faster drive trains. All of them built to take a licking and to deliver an ass kicking when called upon to do so.

Power.

Strength.

Speed.

Force.

Those four things have built my empire. And now I’m intent on expanding it.

Alister spies all the different vehicles and I can only imagine what he’s thinking. We stroll slowly down the length of the warehouse as he looks particularly interested in the work being done to my fathers truck. The rusty spots are gone and its dented and multicolored mismatched body parts are smooth and black. It, like the other trucks, now has a police style push bar attached to the front.

”I’m not sure what I’m looking at,” he says as some sparks fly from a grinder and he takes a step back.

”What you’re looking at,” I say to him with a pause. ”Are my war horses.”

He stops and stares at me for an uncomfortably long couple of moments.

”You’re preparing for a war,” he deduces with a shake of his head. ”I can’t be a part of this,” he says as he starts to walk quickly back toward the man door.

”Wait!” I call after him.

”I can’t know what you’re planning Thaddeus,” he says as he keeps walking. ”It’s better for us both if I don’t.”

”I need your help,” I call after him again as he reaches the door. He stops and lingers for a minute. ”I need to get back on the inside,” I say to him as I start walking toward him. He closes the door and turns around to face me.

”You have my attention,” he states.

”They’re after Lauren,” I say, almost pleading with him.

”Of course they are,” he agrees. ”You can’t in-debt yourself to these people and not expect them to just go away.”

”I paid what she owed,” I inform him. ”But...”

”You don’t get it!” he shouts, almost knocking me back a step with his raised voice. ”Your wife… she’s in too deep now.”

”I know, that’s why...” I begin, but he cuts me off.

”You don’t understand, Thaddeus!” he shouts at me again, before coming closer to me and lowering his register. ”She’s an asset for them now. I know you want to protect her but you can’t. Not without putting your own life in danger and probably those of my great-grandchildren.”

His pleas to me hit me deeply. More so than I really expected.

”Do you really expect me to just roll over?” I ask him as I try to choke back my emotion.

”That’s not your way,” he states. ”They’ll make demands of her. They’ll increase those demands until she just cannot deliver and that’s when she’s outlived her usefulness.

“Thaddeus, in this business, when you’ve outlived your usefulness, that’s when you run and hope they never find you.”

”Look at me,” I say to him. The pent up emotion and the anger at the business and maybe a little bit for Lauren for getting herself involved in this mess, seeps through. ”I have never backed down from a fight and I’m certainly not going to start now.

“I’ll do this without you if I have to Grandfather… but I’ll have a better shot if you’re behind me.”

”No,” he answers and turns to walk toward the door again. ”It’s impossible.”

Hurriedly, I grab his wrist.

”I’ll take over for you,” I say to him. When I was working for him, one thing he wanted to do was to teach me up so that when he’s gone, I could carry on his business. ”I know I don’t know enough about the game you play. I know you always strive to be more than what you are.

“They only respect you, because you keep things quiet while they’re funneling money through you in order to clean it.

“But what if you had more than just some laundering to do?”

He scoffs with a laugh.

”Thaddeus, this is crazy.”

He’s right. It is.

But it’s also necessary to protect the people I love most.

”They know who you are!”

”That’s true, they do,” I agree with him. ”What they don’t know… is I’m also Jameson Henry. They have no idea that Thaddeus Duke and Jaime Henry are one and the same.”

He stays quiet in deep thought for a few minutes. As he’s doing so, three blacked out Lamborghini’s come racing and roaring into the warehouse, screeching to a stop in front of us stealing our attention. Lenny Kravitz’s version of ‘American Woman’ blasts from one of them.

The driver door of one of the Lambo’s swings up. Lauren always knows how to make an entrance. I smile intently, knowing my beautiful wife is about to make her initial appearance in front of my grandfather. Much to my dismay, it’s not Lauren that steps out of the car, but Ricky Rodriguez. He even does it all cinematic-like in slow motion. He even does the slow motion head shake to get the non-existant long flowing hair out of his face.

Record.

Scratch.

”Enjoy the ride Rick?” I ask with a laugh.

”Ohhhh alottabit Thaddy,” he answers as the other two cars open up.

”Got a lot of speed?”

”Wholelottabita bigspeed,” he answers in RickySpeak.

”You FUCK!” Lauren shouts as she steps out of one of the other cars.

”Uh-oh,” Ricky says. ”Gotta go!”

Before he can get away, Lauren chucks a Big Gulp at him. He tries to shield himself, but it impacts his shoulder and he gets drenched with about forty ounces of ice cold Dr. Pepper.

”You ruined my grand entrance you son of a bitch!” Lauren shouts at him. Ricky starts to run away but Lauren keeps chucking things at him. Her purse, one of her shoes, several donuts.

”Your clique,” Alister says, watching the scenery unfold before us. ”Strange bunch.”

”Yeah,” I agree with a smile. ”But I don’t wanna experience life without any of them.”

”Lamborghini’s?” he questions me with a side eye. ”You going for a Gone In Sixty Seconds kind of vibe to all of this?”

”Well,” I begin my answer as Lauren starts to awkwardly walk toward us with only one shoe. ”If I’m Nick Cage, then here comes Angelina.”

”Hmm,” he says. It’s his amused laugh. ”Lauren,” he says with a slight bow of his head as he reaches his hand out. She looks at him with her usual confused look and he grabs her hand. ”Nice to finally meet you in person,” he says, kissing the top of her hand.

”Ohhh.”

”My grandfather, Alister Henry.”

”This who you get your chivalry from?”

”Kinda doubt it,” I answer with a laugh. ”We’re not done talking though...”

No sooner do I say that and Ricky comes running past squirting her with a Super Soaker.

”Mother!… RICKY!” she shouts before running after him.

”Who’s that one?” he asks, nodding his head in Jennie Rodriguez’s direction.

”Jennie Rodriguez, my master mechanic. She organized and made everything happen that you see before you. The trucks, the cars. Wife to Ricky and one of my favorite people,” I answer him. ”Thank you Jinxie!” I call out as she’s giving a long slow walk around of the completed Lamborghini’s.

”Anything for you, Thaddy!” she calls out.

Jennie completes her walk around and advances across he warehouse toward my fathers truck, leaving Alister and I to resume our chat.

”What if you had more?” I repeat my line of inquiry from earlier.

”Hmm?”

”Is a dirty loan shark all you aspired to be?”

”Of course not,” he answers.

”So what if you had more?” I repeat yet again. My line of questioning causes him great consternation. ”Think about it Grandfather. What if you never answered to anyone? What if you were beholden only to yourself and your own best interests?”

He looks at me.

I got him.

”What if you reached out… and grabbed a bigger chunk of the pie?”

”How much pie?” he asks. His interest obviously piqued.

”The whole…

“...fucking…

“...thing.”

Again he hesitates as he considers.

”And how do you believe you would accomplish such an endeavor?” he asks, and it’s a fair question.

”It’ll be slow at first,” I begin to explain. ”It’s a shell game. You know that much. The man at the bottom, leads to his superior. Which leads to his superior. And on and on it goes until we reach the top.

“We seize their businesses along the way.

“We...”

”Consolidate power,” he finishes my thought.

”Exactly.”

”You’re an ambitious man,” he says with an uncharacteristic smile.

”That’s putting it mildly.”

”The Bosses won’t like it,” he advises. ”They won’t take it lightly. They won’t relinquish what they’ve built without a fight.”

”No,” I agree with him. ”But I love a good fight.”

”You really think you can do this?” he asks. ”You really think you can accomplish this in the 2020’s? How do you intend to avoid police detection?”

”What is power?” I ask him almost rhetorically. ”In your business, money is power. The police have been in their back pockets for decades. What happens when they’re outbid? What happens when we give the authorities a number that the Families just can’t match?”

”So you replace the money they’d be losing,” he says while starting to fill in the picture himself. ”All the while buying their silence and ensuring they’re looking the other way while you’re doing the job they should’ve been doing by cleaning up their streets for them.”

I nod in his direction, confirming his different thoughts and suspicions.

”What is it you need from me?” he asks.

This fish is no longer nibbling. He done took a bite and is taking off upstream.

”Your money, your knowledge,” I answer him as we start again for the man door. ”I need your money because mine can’t be used for this. And it will be expensive. When it’s over, you’ll get everything back plus ten percent.”

He falls quiet again as we stroll slowly through the raindrops toward his awaiting Cadillac.

”This is where I agree to allow you to use me then throw me away when it’s all over,” he says softly.

For probably the first time in as long as I’ve known the man, I’m sensing some emotion within him. ”No,” I say to him as we reach his car. He stops and looks at me. ”This is where we reboot our relationship, Grandfather. This is where we hit reset. This is where you become a more permanent fixture in my life and in the lives of my children. This is where you and I become partners.

“I can do it without you, but it’ll be a lot harder and a lot more dangerous.”

”Instead of cleaning for them, I’d be cleaning for you,” he says, still not looking away from me. ”It sounds less like a bigger pie and more like just taking my small piece and moving to a different table.”

”It might seem like that now,” I say, pausing for a beat. ”But I’m acquiring an empire. And I’m gonna need someone to run it.”

He looks at me for a long few moments.

”Okay,” he says before stepping into his car and taking off across the vacant lot.

”What did that mean?” Lauren asks, startling me for a quick second.

”I really don’t know,” I answer her as we watch his car turn around another building and out of view. ”I think if it was a no, he’d have flat out said no.”

Hand in hand, we make our way back toward the warehouse. Just as we near it, a text comes in, vibrating my cell from my jacket pocket.

”We can do it without him, right?” she asks as I retrieve my phone.

”Yeah of course.”

”Because if we don’t do this...”

”Look,” I say to her, showing her the text I just got from Alister. Two words: I’m in.

If I’m being honest, the loss to Raion Kido has me reeling just a little. I’m not in some kind of a tailspin or anything like that. I’m not even ashamed of losing to such a talent. Raion has the ‘it’ factor. He is and will be a major player in this company for as long as he chooses to be here.

Congratulations to Raion Kido on being just the second person in almost two years that has been able to come to the Thaddeus Duke Show and collect a W. The other person? Bobby Bourbon. That’s not bad company.

What’s getting to me though, is that Raion was right. At least partially.

He says I’m complacent. I’m not. I’m never complacent.

What I am, is bored as hell. And boredom is a death knell to a guy like me. I’m a guy that lives for the thrill of the chase. That feeds off the adrenaline of telling a compelling story in front pf those cameras that has the eyes and ears of wrestling fans all over the globe tuned into every single move I make and every word I speak… the fact of the matter is there is nothing left for me to chase. There’s no stories left for me to tell. There are no moves left for me to make. No more words for me to say.

Others that have come before me… they’re happy to do their match per month, show up on pay per view and collect their checks. I need more than that. I have always needed something more. I have always needed something to drive me and just showing up to Warfare every now and again… that just isn’t my bag.

I really gotta thank the powers that be for awarding me this vacation. I certainly haven’t taken enough of those the last six months and when I’m in Japan, that’s what I aim to do. Relax. Chill. Kick my feet up and do a whole lotta nothin’ and though I’m scheduled for a match… it’s only Kieran Overton. Overton is a literal who isn’t in the wrestling world.

The Destructive Beast!

Man, what a moniker. What are you destroying aside from a Golden Corral buffet? Aside from any piece of furniture you sit on? Aside from any credibility you managed to obtain in your lackluster professional wrestling career?

Jesus Christ, have some self respect. Go on a diet. Hit the gym. Start a training regimen. SOMETHING! Instead of looking like a disgustingly lazy fat slob that’s about to drip his nasty sweat all over me.

Listen… I know the score. I know Overton is not very successful. That doesn’t mean a man can’t be tough as nails. Having never faced the man I’ll be honest, I was a little intrigued. Which begs the question: why would Kieran Overton intrigue Thaddeus Duke?

The answer is simple: because its new to me. It’s different. It’s not the same ol’ same ol’.

My excitement though was short lived. Not knowing him much aside from his name, I started to do a little research in preparation for this match. In doing that research I’ve discovered that this? Is kind of an insult. I don’t even know who the fuck I should be pissed off at, the brass? Chris Page as GM of Warfare?

I really don’t know. What I do know, is that I’mma rock Keiran Overton from pillar to post as punishment for me having to take my happy ass to Japan just to waste twenty minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. Like this is not even worth the expense to get there to be perfectly honest.

It’s Japan Thad, you love Japan.

I digress.

In my research I’ve found that this dude is scared to wrestle because... responsibility? Whatever, that just sounds like someone trying to find a way to explain away their absence while simultaneously tryna garner sympathy from the masses. Fact is, if you’re tryna gain sympathy, you might try doing something to make them give a shit about you in the first place.

This the same dude that told Corey Smith in his last match… way back in October… that he was sticking around to prove that even guys that take a year off because they’re too chicken shit to be in this business full time, can come back and… I dunno… be successful or something?

Listen, he’s hard to decipher. Sometimes you gotta draw your own conclusions about what the fuck he’s talking about.

So much for that ‘sticking around’ part, huh?

Speaking of sticking around… this Wednesday night in Japan, for the first time ever, the Thaddeus Duke Show welcomes Keiran Overton to the big stage in undoubtedly, what I like to call the Beginning of the End.

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